Everything was good once. Not like today. Back in the 1950s, America was booming. Money was flowing, business was good, the war had been won and the sun was always shining. It was the halcyon days of modern capitalism.
Nonagenarian übermensch of achingly cool pop art Alex Katz is feeling nostalgic for those days. His troupe of perfectly tanned blonde women in pristine white swimsuits on candy apple red backgrounds here are howls of longing for a corporate America that’s long gone. They’re the Coca-Cola girls, capitalist angels from eons ago.
With his almost brutal trademark economy, he uses the bare minimum of brushstrokes to capture the maximum amount of information. He never gives you anything less, or anything more, than exactly what he needs to. All the lines are simple, the colours totally flat, the faces expressionless.
This is glamorous, elegant painting, with nods back at art history – the classical poses, the deified but anonymous women – and it’s exactly what you want from Katz.
In lots of ways these aren’t paintings of women at all, but paintings of a better time, when things weren’t so fraught. They’re not just lovely to be around because of how they look, or the clever little dashes of brown shadow on skin, or the neat, effortless composition; they’re lovely because they feel safe, warm and distinctly unharmful. They’re a cold glass of Coke with ice and a slice, they’re glamour and success, and they’re a lot better than the harsh truth of reality.
@eddyfrankel
